The history of the controversy over the benefits of liberal arts education versus training for the job market, touching upon educational elitism, accountability, and the value of a college education, logic begs the argument that neither vocational nor liberal education should be seen as an isolated end,
but only as a part of the process of lifelong education.

I believe in the United States of America, as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.[1]

Included on his run-down of "things not expected?" "It was an hour of Oprah counting her money!" he jokes.

David Letterman dedicated his Top 10 list to "things not expected, not predicted to happen" during Oprah Winfrey's last show Wednesday.
No. 10: She read a list of people who can kiss her ass.
No. 9: For old time's sake, Tom Cruise jumped up and down on her couch.
No. 8: A pre-recorded message from Osama Bin Laden.
No. 7: The surprise guest was Oprah's half sister's half sister.
No. 6: A confused Larry King walked on stage shouting, 'Silver Spring, Maryland - hello!"
No. 5: Oprah's staffers chipped in and gave her a $20 gift certificate for Starbucks.
No. 4: No number four. Writer despondent over Oprah's finale.
No. 3: Gayle King fired on stage from a cannon.
No. 2: Due to a typo, everyone on stage got a brand new carp.
No. 1: It was an hour of Oprah counting her money!"

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Other people think that the Government counts every unemployed person each month. To do this, every home in the country would have to be contacted—just as in the population census every 10 years. This procedure would cost way too much and take far too long. Besides, people would soon grow tired of having a census taker come to their homes every month, year after year, to ask about job-related activities.

"An interesting point I noticed in the movie is that the Asians, blacks, and other non-whites on the IWC (International Whaling Commission) were all in favor of killing more whales, while generally the White representatives were against such cruelty. "

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Back in February, Obama's director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jacob Lew, promoted the White House's allegedly draconian budget cuts in The New York Times.

Saying Obama was going to cut the 2012 budget to the bone, Lew droned on about the "difficult" cuts to "important" programs and the "many tough choices and deep cuts" in the proposed budget.

All told, the White House's brutal, Depression-era austerity plan would have snipped a couple of billion from our multi-trillion dollar federal budget.

When the Republicans proposed that, instead of cutting a few billion, the government chop $60 billion from the budget, Democrats went ballistic. They said it was madness. Republicans were proposing to bring back the miserly federal budget of 2008!

You heard me right: Those lunatics were going to roll back the federal spending clock ... almost three years!

You remember the hellish, "Lord of the Flies" days of 2008 when veterans hospitals were shuttered, Social Security checks ceased to be delivered, our military was stripped of ammunition, national parks were closed and stoplights went dark.

Wait, no -- none of that happened.

But Democrats control the Senate and the White House, and the media were gearing up to blame Republicans for any government shutdown.

The Republicans seemed to be cornered. Between their $60 billion in cuts and the Democrats' proposed cuts of a few billion, it looked as if Democrats were going to succeed in putting the country on a high-speed bullet train to Zimbabwe.

All the Republicans had to do was threaten to cut federal funding for abortion, and they won $40 billion in spending cuts overnight.

I don't think Republicans did it deliberately. I'm pretty sure they just wanted to cut funding for Planned Parenthood. But, holy cow, did they find the Democrats' weak spot!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened to shut down the government to save abortions in the District of Columbia. Reid, who is known as a "pro-life Democrat," said cutting Planned Parenthood's funding was the "one issue" on which he would not budge.

Kyl said: "You don't have to go to Planned Parenthood to get your cholesterol or your blood pressure checked. If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood. That's well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does."

The entire mainstream media immediately rose in angry denunciation of Kyl -- based on Planned Parenthood's claim that abortion constitutes less than 3 percent of the services it provides.

Apparently, that depends on the meaning of "services it provides." If taking 30 seconds to write a prescription for birth control pills is considered the equivalent of a two-hour, multiple-visit $450 abortion, then perhaps abortion does constitute only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's work.

But according to Planned Parenthood itself, when it comes to services for pregnant women, abortion constituted 97.6 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provided in 2009. Only 2.4 percent of the organization's services for pregnant women involved prenatal care or adoption referrals.

Again, according to its own reports, Planned Parenthood performed 332,278 abortions in 2009 -- or more than a quarter of all abortions in the entire country. It receives about 37 percent of its total revenue from performing abortions.

Reid and Colbert must be getting a lot of cholesterol tests at Planned Parenthood if abortion constitutes only 3 percent of its services. (Contrary to Sen. Reid's claim that Planned Parenthood administers important cancer screening tests, none of its affiliates even offer mammograms.)

In any event, the Democrats didn't suddenly agree to $40 billion in budget cuts to save Planned Parenthood's cholesterol screening.

If Republicans keep threatening to defund Planned Parenthood, they can probably get Democrats to repeal Obamacare, pass a flat tax and get a capital sentence for Khalid Sheik Mohammed.